How the first Lord Lathom prepared to hand over the family heirlooms
EDWARD BootleWilbraham, the first Lord Lathom, made his last will and testament on December 28, 1897.
At the age of just 60, Edward knew that he was in failing health.
His beloved wife, Countess Alice, had been tragically killed in a carriage accident a year earlier and he was left devastated and beside himself with grief.
He died on November 19 1898 at Lathom House, while still in service to Queen Victoria as Lord Chamberlain.
He chose his close friends as the executors, his two brothers-in-law: Edward Hyde Villiers, the fifth Earl of Clarendon, his late wife’s brother, who would replace Edward as Lord Chamberlain to Queen Victoria, and Frederick Arthur Stanley, the 14th Earl of Derby, husband of his wife’s sister, Constance, Countess of Derby.
In his will, Edward made sure that the precious family heirlooms would be passed on to his descendants and he listed them in detail.
The oil paintings from Lathom House, plus two paintings from the Earl’s London home – 41 Portland Place – which had been left to the late countess by her father, were included.
The items of jewellery listed included a small brooch given to Lady Lathom when a child by Queen Victoria.
There was also one of the Queen’s shawls listed as still in the possession of the family.
Listed also was an aquamarine brooch, given to the earl’s grandmother, Lady Skelmersdale (Mary) by Lord Liverpool, the British Prime Minister from 1812-1827.
Three gold snuff boxes were listed, given to the earl while performing his duties as the Lord Chamberlain.
One was a gift from Franz Joseph I Emperor of Austria who was also the King of Bohemia and the King of Hungary and brother of Maximillian, Emperor of Mexico.
A second snuff box was the gift of the King of the Belgians, Leopold 11, first cousin to Queen Victoria.
The third was a gift from the Shah of Persia, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, during his 1889 visit to England, he was assassinated in 1896.
There were many items of silver plate in the collection, much of it given to the Earl’s grandfather, Lord Skelmersdale, by the electors of Newcastle-underLyne, who he represented from 1796-1812.
Incredibly, one of the items was a watch and chain of King William 1V.
This has to have been given to Lord Skelmersdale at some point between 1830 and 1837.
A gold snuff box in the collection had been the gift of Frederick, Prince of Wales, to Sir Thomas Bootle during the time Sir Thomas was his Chancellor 1740-1751, and it is probable that the meeting between Flora McDonald and the prince at the Tower of London in 1745 included Sir Thomas.
Other items of silver plate included those inherited from the earl’s grandparents and also items given to the Earl and Countess of Lathom on the occasion of their silver wedding in 1885.
Gifts had been given by the tenants of the Lathom Estate, by the inhabitants of Ormskirk and by the Freemasons of Lancashire, the earl being the Grand Master.
The entire contents of the house and estate, including all horses and carriages, were bequeathed to the earl’s eldest son, Edward George, the then Lord Skelmersdale.
What was not left to him was the famous and highly successful herd of shorthorn cattle.
The herd was to be sold off to pay for all funeral expenses and to settle any outstanding taxes of debt.
Lord Lathom had two other surviving sons, Villiers Richard and Reginald Francis; his son Randle had died in 1889.
Villiers, after attending the Temple Grove Grammar School, Surrey, went on to serve as a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade and at the time of his father’s death was unmarried.
He married in 1900 but his wife died in India in 1908.
Reginald Francis attended Eton and Cambridge and at the time of his father’s death he was serving as a lieutenant in the Rhodesia Regiment.
He became the District Commissioner for the Berbera District in Somaliland after his father’s death, dying himself there in 1913 aged 37. Both sons were left £20,000.
His daughters Alice Maud, Mabel, and Edith Cecil were left £7,000.
His married daughter, Florence Mary, had been given a dowry but was left a further £1,000, he also set aside a further £5,000 for her as part of the marriage settlement.
The earl made provision for the future of any daughter who did not marry with an annual annuity of £400.
He also made a codicil to his will, stating that a house should be bought in London for the use of his unmarried daughters; this was to become the house where daughter Alice made her commitment to the Suffrage movement in 1911 and where she lived while working for the St
John’s Ambulance in WWI.
Sadly, youngest daughter Edith died just a month after her father on January 16, 1899, aged 29.
Her death came just eight days before her father’s will went through probate, leaving her share of the inheritance to be reverted back and distributed between her surviving sisters.
The business of the future security of the Lathom Estate was dealt with efficiently and the whole estate was willed to the family for 500 years.
There was a further codicil, added by the earl just weeks before his death, this contained personal bequests to his loyal servants and staff.
We will look at those next time.